


Chapel of the Damned

by BairnSidhe



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Battle of New York (Marvel), Character Study, Gen, Hells Kitchen counts as a character?, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 08:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6045433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BairnSidhe/pseuds/BairnSidhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a place in Hell’s Kitchen, and it is unlike any other place on Earth.  There are memorials elsewhere, to the people who died, to the people who fought, to the victims and the Avengers and the police.  But Hell’s Kitchen is a place unlike those places, and its people are different and their ways of remembering are different.</p>
<p>This is how they remember the men and the women who took up the fight when it became clear that the barricades wouldn’t hold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chapel of the Damned

**Author's Note:**

> A year ago today my Dad passed. I've been thinking about how people remember, and I wanted to explore how the people of Hell's Kitchen would memorialize the dead.
> 
> I'm sorry if I offend with the religious naming, but it made sense to me.

There is a place in Hell’s Kitchen unlike any other place on Earth.  Once, before the Battle of New York, it was a shady S and M club.  Now, it’s different.  There are memorials elsewhere, to the people who died, to the people who fought, to the victims and the Avengers and the police.  But Hell’s Kitchen is a place unlike those places, and its people are different and their ways of remembering are different.

The red lights and black walls were kept, the secluded nooks that once held beds or St Andrew's crosses have been turned into votaries for the Saints of Hell. The men and the women who took up the fight when it became clear that the barricades wouldn’t hold on their side.  It wasn’t a surprise. The people of Hell’s Kitchen know all too well the meaning of the words ‘and the Devil takes the hindmost’.  They live in the Kitchen for a reason, after all.

Gwendolyn Prior, age 27, active member of the SCA, put on plate armor and a helm and walked into battle with her sword.  Her portrait hangs in the first niche, along with her sword.  Under her picture is a small brass plaque reading 38.  The number of Chitauri with fatal wounds that can be traced to her.  Under the sword is a plaque reading Unbreakable.  It never had a name in Gwendolyn’s life; she always said swords earn names through deeds.  When they found her body, her plate had fused to her flesh and her helm had caved in on one side, but her sword was untouched, save for the blood.  Her mouth had a chunk of flesh from a Chitauri throat in it, her last victim only steps away.

Vincent Marianna, age 71, former Mob enforcer, called in some favors and mobilized an unknown number of hit men and leg breakers, before going out himself. His picture hangs in the nook next over.  His number is 29.  The ground directly below has been etched with the words “ _Never let anybody poach my turf before, ain’t gonna stop now just ‘cause the sky’s raining aliens._ ”

Hank Soloman, age 65, radio enthusiast, kept a small fleet of his grandchildren running news.  He kept the front lines informed and warned the hospitals of impending attacks. He scanned HAM and CB and Police frequencies.  He even got a few bits of information that would have earned him a SHIELD visit, if he hadn’t been trapped in an apartment building that collapsed.  He could have gotten out, but he stayed to the last.  Under his picture is a small brass infinity symbol, representing the countless lives he saved.

Bill Mahoney, age 57, retired cop, led a squad of 10 other retired police officers into battle.  A group photo hangs in their nook.  Only one out of the eleven lived past the day, only to succumb to heart failure days later.  The number beneath is 100.  That is a rough estimate for the group as a whole.

The good, the bad, the morally neutral.  On that day they all fought against an enemy greater and scarier than any petty difference among humans.  The pictures in the nooks hold only the dead, the Saints of Hell’s Kitchen.  In the former dance pit, smaller pictures show the living.  Daniel Hoffman, the accountant who gathered bullets and guns for the fighters, Max Fogwell, the boxer who figured out the invaders had glass jaws,  Claire Temple, the nurse who used her own car as an ambulance. Jack Smith, the tagger who used his spray paint to blind them, Bill Shaw the petty thief who lured them into traps and kill boxes at risk of his own life, Maria Rigaletto, the wife of a Mafioso who fed the fighters from the restaurant that had only been a cover before.  Jones, Parker, Nelson, Walker, Drew, Lee, Simpson, Wesley, Rand, Cage, many names that would one day be better known but never better loved. Thanked in that dimly lit pit by people who may hate them for other reasons but will never lose that gratitude.

And Matt Murdock, the blind, newly minted lawyer who helped identify places to dig for survivors, and places where it wasn’t safe to walk.  An old Polaroid picture of a kid in dark glasses wearing a too-big boxers robe, with a sloppy number 35 under it, buried behind other pictures, is all that marks him in that Chapel in Hell’s Kitchen.

The Devil didn’t start showing up until later, but everyone knows, if you go to the Chapel of the Damned at sunset and speak of those who have sinned against you, the Devil will see you safe.


End file.
